Microbial species can become highly deleterious to an infected patient, if that individual cannot clear the infection, or if the patient is unresponsive to treatment. Infections can also become septic, spreading from an infected organ into the blood stream. These septic infections have a poor outcome for patients, generally resulting in organ failure and death.
The problem is that most antibiotics target the live microbes themselves to treat the infection. IgM has been characterized as preventing the toxic septic aspects of bacterial infections due to systemic effects of microbial endotoxins. These endotoxins are components of the cell wall (in-particular in Gram-negative bacteria). Neither of these methods of treatment target or have been shown to target microbial exotoxins, superantigens, or secreted enzymes.
While it is well characterized that plasma-derived IgM can bind to and prevent endotoxin-mediated toxicity towards a patient, this does not address other proteins and toxins that are actively secreted from microbes. The toxic effects of endotoxins are typically a response to bacterial death or lysis induced by antibiotics or the immune system of the patient. These effects are separate from the toxic events that are observed during a microbial infection due to proteins, such as exotoxins, that are actively secreted by the microbe. There remains a need for compositions and methods that prevent, inhibit or reduce the toxic effects of proteins and toxins secreted from microbes, other than endotoxins.